Sunil Lohia wrote: "How many times have [Krishna Pahadi] critisized the Maoists for their killings, head chopping and inhuman like activities. Maoists have been abducting school children from all parts of the country to forcefully educate them on the Maoists way. Have these activists even raised a whimper, "NO". But they openly support the Maoists." I can say that Krishna Pahadi has long been PUBLICLY critical of Maoist atrocities. He is someone who appears to be genuinely, earnestly and -- and I dare say -- naively committed to the cause of human rights issues. I say "naively" because my only problem with him is that he devotes an insane amount of time on human rights tamasha (i.e. leading rallies and staging his own mock-arrests and issuing statements) and NOT enough on working hard and working strategically and behind the scenes to help make Nepal's legal architecture actually address the cause of human rights. One example is that, say, if your relative disappears in Nepal (and I am talking about pre-Feb 1 Nepal) , there is no way you can even begin to navigate a legal or a just or even official means to find out what happened to him or her and how you can seek any semblance of justice. By now, after all these years, one would have expected human rights activists in Nepal to have put together an apparatus that addresses "disappearance" cases. But, alas, in that matter and others, we are where we were in 1996. I question: With a National Human Rights Commission,and with 100s of donor-funded human rights organisations and their branches across Nepal, how the hell did all these human rights abuses did really take place in Nepal? But take place, they did. Sadly, Krishna Pahadai et al, despite their palpable sincerity, have been spending too much time on wrong, glamourous, publicity-rich and easy aspects of human rights and NOT on in the grubby basement of human rights program where the work tends to be tedious, draining, unglamorous but ultimately much more important and "system-building" kind of kaam. As for Padma Ranta, I think of him as a likable comedian whose endearing trait is that he wants to be liked more than be respected. In a previous negotiation with the Maoists, he thought HE was the news, and not the negotiations! oohi ashu